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Hitler’s Aims:
Hitler controlled German Foreign Policy from January 1933.

Hitler took Germany
out of the League of Nations immediately. (They had been
allowed to join in 1926).

He saw the Treaty of Versailles
as one of the main causes of the problems
that Germany faced. He promised the German’s that he would reverse the
treaty and regain the territory that Germany had lost.

He
planned to expand into the East of Europe so that he would gain
Lebensraum (German
for ‘Living Space’. Hitler wanted to create
space for the growing population) for the people, which he
believed they needed.

Hitler took these steps in order to achieve his aims:

When he was
taking over the territory that had been lost due to the Treaty
of Versailles he managed to convince many of the European leaders
that once Germany had regained the territory lost, no further demands would
be made.

Hitler had the benefit of seeing
the Japanese successfully defy the League of
Nations over the situation in Manchuria.

Hitler also developed
close relations with the leader of Italy, Mussolini, who
had withdrawn from the League as a result of the Abyssinian
crisis.

The Saar

The Saar, with its rich coalfields was an industrial area that had been taken
from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles and put under the control of the
League of Nations. A plebiscite (a vote by the people living in an area to
decide the answer to an important question) was to be held after 15 years
to decide if it was to be returned to the Germans. The plebiscite was held
in January, 1935. The results of the plebiscite showed that over 90% of the
population of the Saar wanted to reunite with Germany. Hitler regarded this
as a great triumph because it was the first of the injustices of the Treaty
of Versailles to be reversed.

Rearmament

One of the first things that Hitler chose to do when
he came to power was to begin to increase the German Armed Forces. He did
have to do this secretly
at first due to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

The Disarmament Conference – 1932 – 1934

The conference first met in the February of 1932. The main problem
that they were discussing was what to do with Germany. Germany had
been involved in
the League for 6 years and many people now accepted that Germany should
be treated
more fairly than it was said in the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
The question was, should everyone disarm to the level that Germany
had been forced
to or should the Germans be allowed to rearm to the level of other countries?
The Germans walked out of the conference in July 1932 when the other
counties refused to disarm to the level that Germany had had to. In
May 1933, Hitler
returned to the conference and promised that he wouldn’t rearm
if ‘in
five years all other nations destroyed their arms’. They refused
and Hitler withdrew from the conference in October and not much later,
the League
of Nations.

Non-Aggression Pact with Poland 1934

Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Poland in January 1934. Hitler
signed this for various reasons, including:

He hoped to weaken the alliance
that already existed between Poland and France.

He hoped to reduce
the Polish fears of German aggression.

He wanted to show that he didn’t
have a quarrel with Poland, merely the USSR.

Rearmament

Hitler staged a huge military rally
celebrating the armed forces of Germany in 1935. He also reintroduced conscription
and announced an
army of 550,000
in the same year. An Air Ministry was set up
to
train pilots and build 1,000 aircraft. Hitler was breaking
the terms
of the Treaty
of Versailles
but he
believed that he would get away with it due to
the collapse of the Disarmament Conference. He was correct.

French,
Italian and British representatives meet at the town of Stresa where they
agreed to co-operate
to preserve
the
peace in Europe.
They condemned
the rearmament of Germany. This was known as
the Stresa
Front against German aggression.
But it didn’t last long. It collapsed
due to the Abyssinian Crisis which destroyed
the
relations
between
France, Britain
and Italy, and
the Anglo-German
Naval Treaty.

Anglo-German Naval treaty 1935

Hitler was aware that Britain had
some sympathy towards Germany regarding rearmament. Britain
did believe
that the terms of
the treaty had
been too harsh on Germany
and that a strong Germany would be a buffer
against Communism. In 1935, Britain signed
a naval agreement with
Germany. This allowed the Germans
to have navy
fleet up to 35% of the size of the British
fleet and have the same
number of submarines. The British were
accepting Hitler’s
breach of the Treaty.

The Remilitarisation
of the Rhineland 1936

On the 7th of March, 1936 Hitler
moved German troops back into the demilitarised area
of the Rhineland. This was
a risk for
Hitler as
it was clearly a
breach of the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles. Also, the German army consisted of
only 22,000 men and if the French army
had reacted then they would have been no opposition.
The
men were also under
strict
orders to
withdraw if they were
faced with any opposition). But, neither
the French nor British did anything.
The troops remained in the Rhineland.

Anschluss
with Austria 1938

Hitler was Austrian born and he
wished to see Germany and Austria united
as one country.
In 1938 he felt ready to
attempt this.

He bullied Schuschnigg,
who was the Austrian Chancellor, into accepting Seyss-Inquart, who
was a Nazi, as Austrian
Minister of the Interior.

Schuschnigg ordered for a plebiscite
to take place in order to find out if the Austrians really wanted to
unite with Germany.

Hitler worried that the people
would vote against the unification. He moved German troops to the Austrian
border and threatened
to invade if Schuschnigg
didn’t resign.

Seyss-Inquart
then became Chancellor
of Austria. He invited
the German troops into
the country.
On the 12th of March 1938, the Germany army entered Vienna.
They were welcomed
with cheers and salutes. The Anschluss was complete.

The Nazis also held
their own votes regarding the unification with Germany and 99% of those
who
voted were in favour of the union. (But it was believed that people opposed
the unification
were taken
away
and
locked
up or
killed.) Austria became a
province of the new
German Reich.

The Anschluss was another breach
of the Treaty of Versailles. The French
and British governments did
complain about
it but they didn’t
take any action.

Britain followed a Policy of Appeasement from 1935 to 1938. This meant giving
in to the demands that Hitler made when they believed the demands to
be reasonable. The policy is mainly associated with Neville Chamberlain who
was the Prime
Minister of Britain from 1937 to 1940.

Arguments for Appeasement

Nobody wished to repeat the horrors
of the First World War,
they wanted to avoid another war at all costs.

A lot of people believed
that Germany had been unfairly treated by the Treaty of Versailles.

To
some people, Communism was seen as the biggest threat. They believed
that Germany could act as a buffer because Hitler was anti-communist.

Britain
wasn’t ready to go to war. Rearmament had only started
slowly in 1936 and the British forces were no match
of the Germans.

Britain was also preoccupied
with problems that had been caused by the
Depression e.g Unemployment and they wanted to stay out
of foreign involvement.

The Spanish Civil War had shown
how powerful Germany was. The events showed how horrific another war might
be.

Arguments against Appeasement

Hitler was given an advantage.
He was growing stronger. If war came it would be against a strong Germany.

It
wasn’t right that Britain and France were allowing Germany
to break the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles.

Chamberlain misjudged Hitler.
He had believed that he was simply a normal leader. Appeasement encouraged
Hitler that
he could do anything he wanted.

They missed opportunities to
stop Hitler e.g the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936.

It
didn’t prevent a war.

The Sudeten Crisis

German speakers who lived in Czechoslovakia lived in an area
called the Sudetenland. Hitler wanted these people back.

He ordered Konrad Henlein (who
was the leader of the Sudetenland Germans) to cause trouble in the Sudetenland.

German newspapers printed allegations
of crimes which had apparently been committed by the
Czechs towards the Sudeten Germans.

Hitler threatened to go to war
if a solution wasn’t reached.
Chamberlain, the British Prime-Minister, believed that a peaceful
solution could
be reached. He attempted to convince the Czech President
to accept
self-government
for the Sudetenland. Beneš did
agree but Hitler
then produced new demands and claimed that the
Sudetenland
should
become part
of the German
Reich.

At a meeting at Godesburg
on the
22nd of September
Beneš refused
to accept
the demands.
War
seemed
like it
was going
to
be a real
possibility
but Chamberlain
appealed
to Hitler
to give
him
more time
to try
and find
a solution.

The Munich
Agreement

Neville
Chamberlain
made
one
last attempt
to
maintain peace
on
the 29th
of
September at the
Munich
Conference.

Chamberlain met with Daladier
(the French leader), Hitler and Mussolini at Munich
in a bid to resolve the Sudeten Crisis.

The Czech representatives
weren’t actually invited to
this meeting.

The Czechs
were made to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany. A commission
was set up to decide precisely which territory would be lost.

Chamberlain and Hitler also
had a further meeting
in Munich in which they both agreed that Britain and Germany
would not
go to war
with each other.
Hitler promised
that he didn’t
want the rest of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain
was treated
as a hero when
he returned back to Britain as he had,
supposedly,
saved Europe from going to war.

The results
of the Munich Agreement
also had quite a serious effect
on the Czechoslovakians as well as
Europe.

The Czech Government had been
completely humiliated.

The vital area of the Sudetenland
was lost and, later on, in October
and November, both Poland and Hungary occupied further areas of Czech
territory.

Once again, Britain and France
had given in to the demands of Hitler.

Even though the Munich Agreement
had been seen as a success, both Britain and
France increased the speed of their rearmament.

The collapse of Czechoslovakia,
March
1939

Hitler
invaded and
occupied the
remains of
Czechoslovakia in
the March
of 1939.
Bohemia and
Moravia were
now controlled
by Germany.
Slovakia was
independent in
theory; however
it was
largely dominated
by Germany.
Ruthenia was
given to
Hungary.

The
end of
appeasement

When
Hitler occupied
the remainder
of Czechoslovakia
it suggested
that war
was eventually
going to
come. The
occupation of
Czechoslovakia proved
that the
promises that
Hitler had
made at
the Munich
Agreement were
not going
to be
upheld. Britain
and France
were also
now rapidly
rearming and
they accepted
that the
Policy of
Appeasement had
obviously failed.

Events
in the
Spring of
1939 seemed
to be
favouring the
countries with
dictatorships.
Hitler
had forced
to hand
over the
Baltic town
of Memel
as well
as an
area of
land that
was along
their south-west
border in
March. In
May, Mussolini
also followed
the example
that Hitler
had set
in Czechoslovakia
by invading
Albania.

The
Pact of
Steel was
signed between
Hitler and
Mussolini
in
May 1939.
They promised
to act
together regarding
future events
that may
take place.
It was
clear that
Europe was
now divided
into two
sections.
Britain
and Germany
both began
looking to
the USSR
as a
possible source
of support.

Poland

Hitler’s next target then
became Poland. The Treaty of Versailles had taken away German territory and
given it to the Polish, giving them access
to a sea port (this was the Polish Corridor) and Danzig (which had been
a German city) had also been put under League of Nations control. After Hitler’s
success
in
Czechoslovakia,
he
demanded
the
return
of
the
Polish
Corridor
and
Danzig.

The
French
and
British
Governments
had
both
been
greatly
humiliated
by
Munich
and
the
events
that
had
followed
the
conference.
They
decided
to
act
decisively.
They
gave
guarantees
of
support
to
the
Poles,
Greeks
and
Rumanians
that
they
would
support
them
in
the
case
of
German
Aggression.
They
also
increased
their
production
of
arms
and
equipment.

The
role
of
the
USSR

Britain
and
France
had
made
promises
that
they
would
help
to
protect
Poland
however
there
was
no
way
that
they
would
be
able
to
actually
help
Poland
because
of
its
distance
from
the
West
of
Europe.
The
only
country
that
would
be
able
to
prevent
a
German
attack
on
Poland
was
the
USSR.
The
British
and
French
did
begin
talks
with
the
USSR
to
try
and
reach
an
agreement.

The
USSR
was
suspicious
of
the
Western
motives.
Stalin
felt
that
throughout
the
1930s
that
Britain
had
been
trying
to
send
Hitler
over
to
the
East.
Many
British
people
did
actually
fear
communism
more
than
fascism.
The
USSR’s
exclusion from the Munich Conference was evidence to prove this
when the future of Czechoslovakia was also important to them.
Britain and France didn’t
really show any urgency in relation to making an agreement
with
the USSR in 1939. That made Stalin even more suspicious and
contributed to him signing
the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He didn’t
believe
that
the
British
and
French
could
be
trusted.

The
Nazi-Soviet
Pact

The
German
Foreign
Minister,
Ribbentrop,
and
the
Soviet
Foreign
Minister,
Molotov,
signed
the
Nazi-Soviet
Non-Aggression
Pact
on
the
23rd
of
August
1939.

In this pact the Soviets and
Germans agreed not to fight each other if
a war in Europe took place.

The powers secretly agreed to
divide up Polish territory between them.

Hitler also let Stalin occupy
part of Romania as well as the Baltic states;
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

The world was
shocked when the two enemies
agreed not to attack
each other.
Hitler and Stalin
represented two
political systems which
totally opposed
each other. Although, despite
their differences
of beliefs
on policy, Hitler
and Stalin
had a lot to offer
each other.

The Pact removed the possibility
of war on two fronts for Hitler. He
was given the opportunity to deal with Poland as well, regardless of the threats
given
by France and Britain.

Stalin had already been suspicious
about the motives of the British and
French who had not shown much friendship to the USSR before Hitler rose to
power.
Hitler
had more
to offer
to Stalin
e.g
territory
in
the
East of Europe.

Poland
and the
outbreak of
the war

Hitler
decided to
invade Poland
soon after
Germany had
signed the
Nazi-Soviet Pact.
He did
this because:

Because of the pact he didn’t
have to worry about the
possibility of a Soviet reaction.

The guarantees that Britain
and France had made with Poland in the April
of 1939 were made too late for Hitler to believe that they would really go
to
war.

Because of the Policy of Appeasement,
Hitler believed that he could get
away with almost anything. He thought that the British and French would do
almost
anything
to avoid
a war.

He knew that Poland was too
far away for the British and French to provide
support and decided that even if war came then it would be over very quickly.

On
the 1st of September 1939, Hitler sent German troops into
Poland. War was declared soon after this but both Britain and France.
The USSR
also invaded
Poland on the 15th
of September
and
took the territory
which had been
agreed in the Nazi-Soviet
Pact. Poland
was defeated in 6
weeks.

Hitler
does have
to take
most of
the blame
for the
war but
it wasn’t
just his fault.
The other countries that were involved
also held
some responsibility.

The
USSR had
made
the
deal
with
Germany which
led
to
the invasion
of Poland
as the
German
forces
wouldn’t
have to
face the
risk of
a Soviet
attack.

Poland
had signed
the alliance
with France
and Britain
which then
led to
it trying to resist
the German
demands.

Britain
and France’s
Policy of
Appeasement had
led Hitler
to believe
that he
could get
away with
anything (including
the
invasion of
Poland). The
alliance that
they had
signed with
Poland had
also encouraged
the Poles
to refuse German demands.